It wasn't meant to be. - Long post

I posted here about a week ago asking what were the Ford and Dodge equivalents to the Chevy Work Truck. I got some good replies.
Board member John in Newhaven mentioned there was a pickup like I wanted coming up at an auction where he works.
We got in touch - phone and text - and he helped me to jump through all the hoops to get registered.
I do everything on my smart phone here.
Have unlimited high speed data.
So yesterday was the auction and I'm raring to go. I'm registered, had updated my browser, downloaded the app and was watching the livestream of the auction.
A few cars into the sale I started losing data. Livestream was stalling.
Oh no!
So I jumped into my pickup and went to the library and switched my phone from data to Wi-Fi. Cool. Livestream is on again and I was back in business.
Then of all things to happen my phone decides to update. There's no delaying it. It just gives you a notice and then shuts down.
Meanwhile the auction ain't waiting on me.
I rushed over to one of the library computers and logged onto it with my library card #.
Then I found the auction website and hurriedly logged in there. Got on the livestream again with one car to go before the one I want comes up.
Whew.
But the library computers don't allow sound unless you bring your own headphones. Which I hadn't.
And hearing the auctioneer is pretty important in a live auction. I'm a little bit rattled by now too.
The price of the pickup gets right up to my maximum. So I clicked the bid button. Nothing happened so I clicked it again.
John said he had watched the auction on a monitor and afterwards told me he saw my bid come in about a second after the auction closed.
And I didn't get the pickup.
I was just stunned.
But, I did learn a lot and will find another pickup to bid on.
More than anything I feel I let John down - after all the help he gave.
Thinking about it here, technology gave me the ability to live bid on a pickup that was 500 miles away.
But that same technology had a few hiccups and took my opportunity away.
All these odd circumstances seem to have conspired against me. But, guy has to be philosophical about it all and I'm thinking that for some reason, me getting the pickup just wasn't meant to be.
Jerry

In most all auctions that have onsite and internet buyers the priority goes to the onsite buyers. Sometimes internet bids get rejected regardless and in many auctions onsite buyers only have to equal internet bids, not out bid them.

Ultradog you in no way let me down. I feel bad it didn't work out this time. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you and helping you!!! Anytime my friend!!!

Not at my auction. Internet bidders and on-site bidders are treated NO differently.

On the online/live auctions I attend, you are warned that the audio can be DELAYED, so pay attention to the numbers on the screen, not what the auctioneer is saying.

I'd be really surprised if the auction you were attending was any different. There can still be network lag regardless, and your bid may be delayed by a

"Priority given to the onsite bidder" means that if both bid at the same time, the onsite bidder gets the bid, and the online bidder has to bid higher. I don't really know how else you'd handle it; in a strictly live auction whoever the auctioneer or ring man sees first gets the bid, OR they keep raising the bid until someone puts their hand down.

That is good to know, I participate in several hundred online auctions per year and most do give priority to the onsite buyers which I do not object to, just pays to remember when bidding, of course many also charge ivery high internet premiums that make it tough as well.

That has got to be the height of frustration. You sure someone else wasn't trying to stop you? Like, someone you know?
A friend is always watching for a particular style (and color) truck. He drives alot for business and is always checking out new and used lots. Last I heard he has about a dozen spread around his farm and business locations.

Thanks John.
It was fun talking with you and I learned a lot.

You still have your money and there are more out there,the other bidder could have went a lot more.When i was looking for a pickup I ran one up at an auction about $1500 more than I wanted to bid didn't get it.Regretted not biding more,in less than a week I found one that much better suited my needs glad I didn't get the first one.

Sorry that you lost out on the truck.

That brings to mind that there is no substitute for being there. We depend too heavily on technology, and it has proven to be a fickle friend. Every day I see folks being too dependent on technology. Those little "clickers" that they lock their cars with. They get out of a car and halfway into the store, they click this thing over their shoulder to lock the car. How many ways can that fail? Well, there are a set of door lock actuators that are electro-mechanical devices that can fail. There are a few miles of wiring that can fail at the hinge points.

Then there is the shopping by phone thing. Not for me, thank you. My lady shops by phone all of the time. Our house looks like a UPS/FedEx terminal. About a third of the time, the results are disappointing. Wrong items, items arriving late, misunderstandings on product sizes, and in many cases things just cost more than they would locally.

Jerry sorry to hear you lost out on the bidding for the truck due to technology.

You may want to read the book Flash Boys by Michael Lewis it is all about how the Wall Street Traders with the fastest computers and the fastest network speeds had the trading advantage over everyone else.

Bummer, Jerry.

Always enjoy reading your stories though.

Fastenal dot com, has PUs for sale. Lots of them you just have to look through the listing. Sometime they are high, and some are about right for a farm boy.

I was watching the Barrett-Jackson auction on live stream and
on the MotorTrend channel at the same time. The live stream was
lagging behind the TV show by a few seconds.

You're not alone!

Sometimes I wonder if these situations are more frustrating because we see the promise of the potential of what it can do.

Wow ,that sounds like a stressful day !

No on the phone sales people working the auction?

Vito